Back to School Dreams and Barefoot Contessa's Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Panini

Yes dear friends...  I have gone back to school.  Let me update you first though on my weird electrical field.  Since posting about that problem, I have had 3 more things happen to me demonstrating that something is wrong with me.  Driving home from school one day a couple of weeks ago, I ran into the worst thunderstorm ever.  Lightning was flashing and popping so close to the car that I was actually seeing purple afterimages.  Oh my!!  I just kept thinking it would strike me because of my weird electrical field.  It didn't though thank goodness.  That same week, another monitor at school went out PLUS the laptop that we replaced the old computer with at home has gone to blue screen twice this week.  I am scared!!  Now every time, something weird happens I think it has to be me.  I will keep you updated.  We need to start keeping score.

This will be my nineteenth year in the classroom.  The one common thread that has run through these nineteen years of teaching is that I always have what I call "My Back-to-School" dreams usually about a couple of weeks prior to school starting.  They come in one of three categories.  The first category is the natural disaster dream.  It usually comes in the form of a tornado that I am always running away from but thankfully, it never catches me.  One of my fellow teachers and I were talking about this dream phenomenon, and she said she just had one about a flash flood coming under her front door and coming into the house.  I am not a dream expert but I would say that this type of dream signifies impending doom.  Hmmm......

The second category is the one where you the teacher are never prepared for class.  I have had dreams where I forgot to run off tests, forgot to do my Powerpoint lecture, forgot to buy the equipment for my lab, and even forgot to go to class, didn't call in sick and the students went wild.  UGH!!!!

The third category is the one where the students are always horrible and heinous!!!  I have had dreams where the students were all throwing up on the floor, they refused to do their work and starting playing on YouTube and were pulling up nasty music videos to watch and dance provocatively to, and of course, the Principal always walks into the room at that exact moment.  This is the category of dream my brain and psyche have chosen for me to experience this year.  Here is the setup.  You know I teach a class for students who want to go into the medical field. One aspect of the class is to take them on field trips to tour various healthcare facilities.  Well......in this dream, we are touring a hospital.  We arrive at the hospital, and the hospital representative gets us in a group and tells us that we no longer have a tour guide.  Uh oh!!!  We have to give the tour ourselves.  I have never been here before but oh well I can manage!!  I get my group of students together, and I notice that they have all worn their bathing suits for the trip.  I proceed to ask them "What in the world were you thinking?  This is not professional!" and they reply "You told us to wear our bathing suits Mrs. Holland!"  Oh no I didn't.  I would not do that even in a stupid dream.  Now I have to find them clothes to cover up so we can go on our tour.  As we are looking for the cover-ups, one student falls and hits her head on the corner of a table.  She is bleeding profusely, and everyone is hovering around looking at her and not offering any assistance.  (This has actually happened three times on field trips - not the bleeding profusely part.  One student fell down a flight of stairs but was remarkably OK, and another student fell up a flight of stairs and hurt her knee.  I myself actually fell climbing into the bus for a field trip, and the students all laughed at me.  Grrr....).  Back to the dream or is it a dream???  I tell the students to leave and go outside and look around so I can tend to the hurt student.  I look outside to check on them, and they are all playing with POLAR BEARS!!!!  I proceed to drag the hurt student along the floor,  get into a car and go driving around the hospital looking for someone to help us.  Mercifully I woke up.  What would a dream expert say about that one?   I will let you know if I have anymore.  There is still time.  It is funny but once school starts, the dreams stop.  Interesting.......

Anyway, on to the recipe.  We are still cooking out of Barefoot Contessa at Home, and the game chose "Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Panini".  Yummmmm...

Here is what you will need...Good Bread which Barefoot always calls for (This turned out not to be good bread...will explain later), Mozzarella Cheese Slices, Tomatoes, and Prepared Pesto plus salt and pepper.

Core your tomato.

Slice your tomatoes pretty thick.  These are some tomatoes from our Community Supported Agriculture membership.  The produce has been wonderful this year.

Spread the pesto on the both slices of the bread.

Add the mozarella cheese slices.

Then add your tomatoes.  YUM!!

Barefoot tells you to slather the bread with butter but I obeyed the Food Police and use the I Cannot Believe it is Butter Spray.  You will never miss the butter, and I am not just trying to make Food Police happy by saying that.

Husband Fred gave me The Griddler for Christmas one year (Woohoo...Just kidding...I really was excited!).  You can change out the plates to either a grill or flat griddle.  But you can probably just do them in a skillet.

Here is the finished product.  The panini was a little mushy with the regular bread.  Next time I do these, I will get some thicker sliced bread from the Bakery!!  These were absolutely wonderful though as is!!  They would be great for a lunch but were also hearty enough for dinner.  Plus it allows you to use up your produce from your garden.

Here is your recipe...

Barefoot Contessa at Home

Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Panini

2 large ripe tomatoes
1 (16 ounce) ball of fresh mozzarella - I used slices.
12 slices bakery white bread, sliced thick
About 1 cup prepared peso - I did not use nearly this much.
Kosher salt
Unsalted butter, at room temperature - I used Butter Spray.

Preheat a panini grill machine.
Core the tomatoes and slice the tomatoes and mozzarella 1/4-in thick
Spread each slice of bread with pesto.  Place a layer of mozzarella on halfof the bread and cover with a layer of tomato.  Sprinkle the tomato with salt.  Place the remaining slices of bread, pesto side down, on top.  Spread the topa nd bottom of each sandwich with butter.  Grill the sandwiches in batches on the panini grill for 2-3 minutes, until the mozzarella starts to ooze.  Cut each sandwich in half and serve warm.

Now go have a great day!!